Higher education

Universities collect data on students, much of it has not driven decision-making. Advanced analytics find the answers more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. These questions cover all aspects of operations—from student-facing to back-office.

Advanced analytics mean we don’t have to guess at the drivers of student success. Machine learning quickly identify factors that determine a student may be at risk—and then make decisions and prioritize actions for university administrators to intervene.

Analytics are a powerful source of insights that support effective decision making and strategic development. Concerns about the quality of data are usually misplaced. You likely already have enough data to drive preliminary insights, quickly identifying opportunities for growth. Privacy concerns are understandable. But anonymized, aggregated data is all you need to start making ground breaking discoveries.

Universities face the familiar challenges of cybersecurity- phishing attacks, unsecured personal devices, a lack of security awareness to identify and access management but need to contend with them in the context of a highly distributed technology environment. Open networks may not be properly monitored for unauthorized access, unsafe internet surfing habits and malware infections. Various faculties run their own IT and security departments making enforcement of streamlined security practices difficult. Most institutions lack formal governance structures to address security and compliance. It’s rare to find roles such as a Chief Information Security Officer or established compliance teams. Their absence makes it hard to implement and manage centralized IT security policies and standards. The nature of what institutions do and how they’re organized exposes them to some unique cybersecurity challenges.